Choice
by RobertDowneyJrLove
Summary: Nathan tells Taylor why Jackson's choice will always be Melissa. Nathan/Taylor friendship with Jackson/Melissa romance...if you squint.


It was easy to hate Melissa Wu. She was exotic, beautiful and when she decided to show it, she had a wicked sense of humor. It was so easy to hate her with her full lips, dark chocolate brown eyes, long silky locks of inky blackness and curvacious body. Not to mention the sweet genuine girl-next-door personality and the knack she had for getting people to open up. Especially _him. _She supposed that's why he had fallen in love with Melissa. She was the exotic beauty with the beautiful personality. She didn't have to be sexy or adorable like _she _did. She was beautiful, inside and out and that was enough for him. She was always enough for him. He never wanted what the blue-eyed blonde had to offer because the girl-next-door, beautiful-without-really-trying would always fill that void. Would always be his better half.

"You might as well get used to it." Nathan's voice spoke up from behind her. He collapsed down in the sand, sinking his fingers into the loose white powder as he followed her gaze to the couple on the beach. "It's always gonna be that way."

They're just sitting there on the beach, knees pulled up to their chests and heads tilted down, watching the waves crash in. Once in a while they'll look at each other and laugh, as if they're sharing secrets. As if they're lost in their own little world and nobody else is invited. The world around them crumbles and dissolves with each wave that crashes on the shore as they weave a solid web around each other, pulling the other in closer until everybody else is trapped on the outside.

"Why?" She pouts, because she wants to be the one he's weaving that web of deep friendship, loyalty and protection with. She wants to be his other half, his best friend even though she knows that role is already taken by the easily hated Melissa Wu.

Nathan just laughs as he watches them. "She's his better half and he's hers."

It's true. The blue-eyed boy and the brown-eyed girl were always together. They were like the other halves of each other. One without the other never seemed quite right but when they were with each other, it made more sense. Melissa Wu was the better half of Jackson and in a way Jackson was the better half of Melissa. They were two halves of the same whole and without each other, they were awkward and incomplete. They completed each other.

"Why her?" She can't help but pout. She's _Taylor Hagan, _her name alone should be enough but combined with her looks, she thought herself to be a knockout. Even though she was pretty, she knew that in _his _eyes, she'd never be able to compete with the exotic Asian.

"Because Melissa is what he needs," Nathan tells her, chafing sand between his fingers, as he watches Jackson wrap an arm around Melissa and pull her in closer, tucking her into his body protectively. "He needs somebody to balance him out."

"But I'm prettier - " Taylor protests, despite knowing that looks wouldn't be what won over a guy - unless that guy was more superficial than she was.

"Looks aren't everything to him." Nathan shakes his head, dark brown curls bouncing slightly. "Jackson wants more than just a pretty face. He wants someone who understands. Who knows him and the only person who truly understands him and knows him is Melissa. She's the only one who has ever cared about him. She cared about him before you even gave a second thought to who he was."

It was true. Melissa was the only one who cared enough to try and bring him on this trip, regardless of what everybody else thought of him. Nobody wanted him on the trip but Melissa fought Daley's stubborn, snobbish attitude and got him the extra seat on the plane. Taylor hadn't given him a second thought until after _Melissa _had nursed him back to health after he caught a bad case of giardia from drinking unfiltered water. The backlash - more specifically Melissa's backlash when she learned what he had done - had made Jackson perfectly aware that if he pulled a stunt like that again, she would in no uncertain terms, leave him to his own puking devices. Needless to say, Jackson always made sure he was the first one to get the water bottles that Melissa handed out after breakfast every morning.

"Jackson loves her, doesn't he?" Taylor questions, even though just by looking at them she already knows what Nathan's going to tell her.

"In his own Jackson kind of way, he loves her very much." Nathan told her softly, "It's nothing against you, Tay. It's just the way he is. He's always going to choose Melissa because he needs someone who can balance him out. Not try and change him."

"I wouldn't try to change him!" Taylor exclaimed indifferently.

"Maybe not at first but eventually you'd get tired of him always going to Melissa when he needed to talk instead of talking to you. You'd get tired of being the third wheel in a relationship even though technically it's your relationship. You'd want to change that and when he wouldn't change into who you wanted him to be, you'd dump him." Nathan told her, motioning toward the beach where Jackson and Melissa were sitting quietly, content to just sit with each other. "Jackson doesn't need someone who's going to take it personally when he doesn't open up. He needs someone who understands that sometimes it's easier for him to say nothing than to spill everything."

"But I can - "

"No, you'd bug him to death. You desperately want to be what Melissa already is to him." Nathan corrected her with a shake of his head. "She's his best friend. She doesn't bug him until he opens up to her, she doesn't have to. He naturally gravitates toward her. He opens up to her because he knows she'll listen without question and without judgment. He knows she's the one who'll just be quiet and let him talk."

"I don't have a chance with him." Taylor sighs sadly, her eyes still focused on the couple on the beach.

Nathan shrugs apologetically and stills beside her, quiet and undeniably riveted by the couple on the beach. They're still caught up in their own little world and Nathan can tell that they will be for quite some time. That's okay. He likes it that way. He likes seeing them both happy and content in knowing that they'd always have each other to turn too.

Because Jackson's choice always has been and always will be, Melissa.

* * *

><p><strong>Haha! Story idea I found in a little notebook I have full of story ideas for various fandoms. I <strong>**played with it, tweaked and finally finished it today. I've been busy helping my parents move all week and now I'm tired. I finally found the time to finish this, which I stupidly started right in the midst of the busiest five days we've ever had. We haven't been this busy since we went on my graduation road-trip last summer! Sweet Jesus, I'm tired. Anywho, leave me some love, Dolls.**

**Love ya, **

**RobertDowneyJrLove **

**P.S. I hope you didn't think me gone for good because that'll never happen!**


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